How will Trump’s policies hit O.C. where it hurts? Officials working to end homelessness look at uncertainties
- Share via
Good morning. It’s Wednesday, Feb. 26. I’m Carol Cormaci, bringing you this week’s TimesOC newsletter with a look at some of the latest local news and events.
Several of President Donald Trump’s policies announced in the early days of his second administration will likely be felt in Orange County in the months ahead, particularly where it comes to tackling homelessness.
During last week’s regular meeting of the O.C. Commission to End Homelessness in Santa Ana, policy experts laid out for concerned officials what impacts might be experienced here as the federal government steps back from supporting local efforts. Daily Pilot reporter Eric Licas wrote about the briefing for the paper.
Although shortly after the White House on Jan. 27 announced plans to freeze billions in federal funding, a federal appeals court sided with states who sued to challenge them — effectively putting them on ice — it’s unclear how much will be withheld from county programs.
During last week’s commission meeting, Ben Goldeen, federal advocacy director for Townsend Public Affairs, pointed out the release of much of that money will be subject to a review by the Office of Management and Budget.
Roughly $34.5 million of a Housing and Urban Development package has already been earmarked for the Orange County Continuum of Care, which manages the implementation of strategies to get people off the street, according to Licas’ report. It’s an open question as to how much will make it here, especially given the fact HUD is among the federal agencies that have been ordered by the White House to cut their staffs to the bone.
“Another executive order focused on ‘restoring biological truth,’ by targeting ‘gender ideology extremism’ that would effectively end what’s known as the Equal Access Rule,” Licas notes in his report. “That’s a HUD policy instructing those building or operating homeless shelters, supportive housing and other facilities supported by federal funds to ensure those are accessible to people who ascribe to different gender identities.”
So, what does the immediate future hold for the Commission to End Homelessness and funding for its work?
“We are really in uncharted waters with the way the executive branch is going about making reforms to activities at federal agencies,” Goldeen said. “And with that unprecedented nature there is a lot of uncertainty.”
MORE NEWS
• Former NFL player Chris Kluwe made national news last week when he was arrested for approaching the Huntington Beach City Council dais in an act of civil disobedience to protest the inclusion of the MAGA letters on a plaque celebrating the public library’s 50th anniversary. As predicted here last week, the council approved a plaque carrying the MAGA message, but the final design was altered by Councilwoman Gracey Van der Mark from the one approved the library commission. In addition to the acrostic MAGA, which was moved from the center of the design toward the bottom, this phrase is now underneath it: “Through hope and change, our nation has built back better to the golden age of Making America Great Again.”
• A legal settlement was reached earlier this month between a coalition of Jewish groups and the Santa Ana Unified School District that will eliminate three existing ethnic study classes. The suit alleged secrecy and antisemitism defined the district’s ethnic studies rollout, according to the TimesOC report on the settlement. Should the district decide to bring back such classes, it has agreed to publish course outline drafts online at least a week before holding a public meeting.
• After hearing from members of the public who objected to it, an agenda item on a recent San Clemente City Council meeting that would have banned feeding people in a public setting didn’t pass muster with a council majority, TimesOC reported. “The issues of safety, security and trash can be addressed with park rangers,” Mayor Steve Knoblock, who was the swing vote against the ban, which was seen by critics as anti-homeless. “People that have in their minds and hearts a desire to help people, I think we shouldn’t be hindering that at all.”
PUBLIC SAFETY & CRIME
• Jeffrey Ferguson, an O.C. Superior Court judge, continued Tuesday testifying in his defense in the Aug. 3, 2023, fatal shooting his wife, Sheryl, in their Anaheim Hills home. Ferguson, 74, maintains the shooting was an accident. In a video from a police interview that was shown to jurors by prosecutors last week, Ferguson said, “I killed her. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, convict my ass. I did it,” according to L.A. Times coverage of the trial by Christopher Goffard. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Eleanor Hunter is presiding over the case because Orange County judges recused themselves.
• Although the retail sale of nitrous oxide (aka “laughing gas”) is not prohibited in California, its use for recreational purposes is a misdemeanor offense. At the same time the county was moving toward a law to ban the sale of it in unincorporated O.C., the Daily Pilot reports, and Costa Mesa police last week posted to social media that gas canisters and chargers had been seized from two smoke shops that were out of compliance with a law that requires them to record all transactions of nitrous oxide, including customers’ names and addresses, and make them sign a document highlighting the health risks and laws around sales and uses of the product. On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a second reading of its ban.
• Three people were hospitalized Saturday following a spectacular two-car crash near MacArthur Boulevard and Bison Avenue in Newport Beach near the Irvine border. One vehicle ended up wrapped around a tree, and the other hit two trees and a light pole before landing in a nearby drainage field, its motor ripped out of its engine bay in the process.
• Laguna Beach resident Mark Albert Rettenmaier, 72, a former Hoag oncologist, pleaded guilty last week to possession of child pornography and is expected to be sentenced in August. He stopped practicing medicine after separate allegations of possessing child pornography were filed against him in 2014.
• Sergop Arroyo Miralrio, 37, was sentenced Friday to 97 years to life in prison for sexually assaulting a female relative beginning when she was 4 until she was 16 in Costa Mesa.
SPORTS
• National Hockey League’s Department of Player Safety announced Monday that Ducks forward Trevor Zegras was suspended three games without pay for a “late, high hit” Sunday to the head of Detroit’s Michael Rasmussen. The suspension will cost Zegras $89,844 in salary.
• The L.A. Times reported from the Angels’ training camp in Tempe, Ariz. Sunday that team officials hope former Dodger pitcher Kenley Jansen “can teach hard-throwing reliever Ben Joyce a thing or two.” The 37-year-old Jansen signed a one-year, $10-million deal just before spring training to mentor to Joyce, 24.
• In high school girls water polo title game action at Mt. San Antonio College Saturday, as reported by the Daily Pilot, Laguna Beach beat San Clemente 10-9 in sudden-death overtime to win its eighth CIF championship, and first since 2020. Also, Oaks Christian beat Newport Harbor 7-5 to capture the open division title.
• A three-day camp hosted last week by the nonprofit Spectrum Sailing and the Orange Coast College School of Sailing & Seamanship brought about 20 children on the autism spectrum to Newport Harbor, where they were taught not only the skills involved in the sport but also how to work in teams.
• For newsletter readers who are cyclists: The Caltrans District 12 office announced Tuesday the San Diego Creek Bike Trail in Irvine that passes under State Route-133 has been reopened following work on a bridge-widening project.
CALENDAR THIS
• Orange County Restaurant Week takes place Sunday, March 2 through Saturday, March 8, when 200 participating restaurants will offer prix fixe lunch menus priced from $15 to $25 and prix fixe dinners ranging from $25 to $45. For tickets to a kick-off event Saturday at the Marriott Irvine Spectrum and a complete list of participating restaurants and their menus for the week visit ocrestaurantweek.com.
• Christ Cathedral in Garden Grove will be holding a 19-hour “Bach-a-Thon” from 6 a.m. next Monday until 1 a.m. Tuesday, hosted by Michael Barone of NPR’s weekly program “Pipedreams.” Throughout the day, concert organists will perform more than 200 organ works of composer Johann Sebastian Bach on the cathedral’s Hazel Wright organ. At 7:30 p.m. Monday the church’s organists and choirs will present “The Best of Bach.” The complete program and more information can be found here. The event will also be livestreamed on YouTube.
• Giacomo Puccini’s famed tragic opera “Madama Butterfly” will be performed this Saturday afternoon in the concert hall at Soka Performing Arts Center, 1 University Drive, Aliso Viejo. The production is the annual staging of an opera brought to the community by the Parnassus Society, co-founded by Dr. Kenneth Tokita and his wife, Sandra. The cast will be supported by the Parnassus Virtuosi Orchestra and the Orange County School of the Arts Puccini Chorus. Tickets, which can be purchased at this site, range from $28 to $68; senior/military 10% off ticket price; students $18.
• For kids ages 4 and up, South Coast Repertory presents the musical “The Incredible Book Eating Boy” on Friday, Feb. 28 through Sunday, March 16. The musical’s book is by Madhuri Shekar, music by Christian Magby, lyrics by Christian Albright, and it’s based on the best-selling book by Oliver Jeffers. SCR’s Julianne Argyros Stage is located at 655 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa. Tickets, ranging from $37 to $55, can be purchased and more details can be found here.
Until next Wednesday,
Carol
KEEP IN TOUCH
I appreciate your help in making this the best newsletter it can be. Please send news tips, your memory of life in O.C. (photos welcome!) or comments to [email protected].
All the latest on Orange County from Orange County.
Get our free TimesOC newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Daily Pilot.
